“Sometimes life overwhelms us with joy, sometimes life overwhelms us with pain and fear. Recently I felt I couldn’t take any more and found relief in my faith.” -Stacie Smith

-Phyllis Meredith

“Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.” ― Kahlil Gibran

Hungry to Create -Efi Panagoula
for calm.for more white.for more art.for more peace.

Hunger -Vanessa Simpson

A Hunger for Freedom -Jessica Brandau
A hunger for freedom… freedom from the monotony of a small town, from being seldom “understood”, from feeling confined artistically, freedom from my body issues, and the skeletons in my past.

Hungry -Meredith Hepburn

-Marlize MeyerSometimes I’m terrified of my heart;
of its constant hunger
for whatever it is it wants.
The way it stops and starts.
-Edgar Allan Poe

Hungry for Perfection -Heather EarlePretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst
We try to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see
It’s the soul that needs the surgery – Beyoncé

so what did you want to do love, split his head open? -Cat Palmer
inspired by Warsan Shire’s poem For Women Who Are Difficult To Love

Stay Hungry -Jack Ratana
sometimes closing your eyes and having a “picture” just with a little bit of light (clarity) it can take you back to your first love.

-Kerry Varnum
I hunger for the warmth of the sun on my face….the cool breeze through my hair

Even though this site has been ignored since April (!) many of us have not forgotten our self portrait project. I have been creating self portraits throughout the year and when asked if I know of anyone working on a group project I thought it was high time for us to start My Reflective Lens again. Wouldn’t you agree?

I think Jennifer Capozzola summed it up in her bio (over on the about page) when she said “Self portraits are my way of accessing my own secrets, fears, joys, preoccupations. Pieces of me I wouldn’t usually share with the world but in ways that still feel safe since they are often abstractions.”

In my portraits, the challenge of recreating a situation, a euphemism, or a song is something I love. My mind keeps going back to an idea and when that idea has been executed, I will move to the next one plaguing me. These images are totally different from my other work. I have been a photographer for years, documenting people’s lives, creating a work of remembrance for them. This new body of work, my self portraits with all their oddity, is my inner remembrance. They speak more plainly of me, in their obscure and abstract way. They release the guilt or fear or shame that I often feel. I had no idea a photograph could double as therapy, and it may not, but it sure does help.

Our first group post is schedule to air on February 13th. In the mean time, the names and faces of our contributing artists can be found on our about page. There are 26 of us together on this journey. Many are very uncomfortable in front of the camera. Some will not post publicly, but my hope is that we all create something find some sort of release through our creations.

While you await our first post I would suggest you find and watch The Woodmans (I saw it on Netflix), a documentary of Francesca Woodman. Her work inspired my to push forward with self portraits. A video/slideshow of her work can be found here.

I hope you will join us, as our audience, on our journey of self discovery and self expression.